Customer Reviews

Inventing Kindergarten

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A thorough tracing of the ideas and uses of materials (gifts/occupations) in the early kindergarten movement. The juxtaposition of pictures of the kindergarten exercises and manipulatives with the adult abstract art of 20th century Cubism, Constructivism, and architectural planning is stimulating and thought provoking. This book is both delightful reading and browsing, and intellectually fresh in probing connections between childhood experience and adult art expression. The respect paid to Froebel is also gratifying. Many books in education leave the impression that he was an irresponsible dreamer and was a victim of lifelong misunderstanding and harrassment. This book acknowledges the personal and political problems he experienced without making them a focus of the text. Professionals in child development will find this a rewarding reading experience.

The kindergarten is ubiquitous, but how many of its former pupils really know how it came about and what philosophies it is based upon. Norman Brosterman lovingly and meticulously studies the background of this 19th century invention, spurned by conservatives, embraced by those who wanted child-centered education for their young children, and which influenced 20th century painters and architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Kandinsky, Paul Klee and many others. Brosterman leaves no stone unturned . Through carefully written text and rich photographs of actual educational games ("Gaben" in German) by Kiyoshi Tagashi, he explains the goal of each "Gabe", its aesthetic value and then illustrates for the reader how these influenced a generation of artists who had been schooled with them. As an educator, gallery director, and Froebel descendant, I can say unequivocably that Brosterman's book is perhaps the best book written about Froebel in this century. Surely it is the most thought provoking book about art history that I have read in a very long time

Although everyone knows what kindergarten is, so few understand how it came to be. Brosterman carefully shows the reader the background and takes us on a tour of Froebel's "Gaben" or educational "gifts." The book is gull of gorgeous photos of the games which Brosterman has been collecting over the years. Fascinating is his research which connects the creations of Kandinsky, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, etc. to their childhood exposure to the then revolutionary educational activities. This book is informative and beautifully photographed. For all elementary teachers, parents, school libraries and everyone who has ever wondered about kindergarten. As a Froebel family member, teacher, and art dealer I found the book exceptional at all those levels

A beautiful book, and one I often give to new parents. Brosterman writes well and lovingly, and the book is equally good to look at.

This book on the repercussions Froebel's invention of kindertgarten had on artistic sensibility does an excellent job of tying its premise to quotations and examples from artists of the period in which these effects would surface. However, it's not a great read, and once you accept the premise, the book becomes an exercise. None of the comparisons were all that astounding. As an aside, this book probably contains the best interpretation of the term "zeitgeist" I've ever seen in print

Not only did Froebel's ideas somewhat baffled early/mid 19th Century Germany, but they feared his somewhat oddball approach to children by allowing them to "work" with peculiar, open-ended objects. Some in Switzerland even labeled him a heretic to the church. Enlightening ideas like these turn Brosterman's (not even an early childhood professional)book into a wealth of information.

One of the amazing ideas that I uncovered came in the form of how many different Gifts existed. I thought Froebel only made ten, but TWENTY existed.

Please read this book over at least so that you can take a gander at the wonderfully valuable pictures of the original classroom and the original Milton Bradley-made gifts.